For all those author bloggers out there!

Did you know that there has just been a conference in Portland Oregon about Kids Lit blogging?
Alice Pope, editor of the Children’s Writers and Illustrators Marketplace has just blogged about it. Here's a sample of what she has to say.

Next up I attended a session with Pam Coughlin, aka Mother Reader in which she offered tips to Kick Your Blog Up a Notch. Pam gave a dozen suggestions for being a bigger (not necessarily a better) blogger. These include having a distinct voice, filling a particular niche, updating daily, commenting on other blogs, and doing self-promotion. Self-promotional efforts can be as simple as including your blog on your email signature, sending out occasional updates to your email list, and asking other bloggers to mention something super-special that's going on on your blog. (Note: Pam volunteered to coordinate the 3rd Kidlitosphere Conference next year in D.C.)

You can read the rest of Alice's article on her blog.
She has linked to Laini Taylor, one of the organisers of the conference, who also gives a great run down on blogs in the kitlitospere.
Hot topics at the conference... Marketing and self promotion....

(wow...I wonder what the hot topics at our national conference of children’s writers and illustrators next year will be....)

maureen
and no I won't be posting every day...I had 11 interrruptions just doing this one...

Marketing 101c ...Who is your audience?

That can be such a tough question for children’s writers....

You write for kids- they are your audience....but they don’t buy the books unless they have book vouchers to get rid of or are real bibliophiles. Their parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, teachers buy the books....
So who reads your web pages?

Aha...the kids...

So back to the audience question... which audience is your web page for?
Why does an author even have a web page?

The current thinking around marketing yourself on the web is that COMMUNITY is the way to go.
This has been fuelled by the phenomenon know as Facebook and other like minded sites.

Provide your audience with a community to belong to...
Some authors provide catchy names for their online audience and even a shop to buy themed gifts celebrating their online membership...sort of an exclusive club.

But back to the kids....Is your website even designed for kids?
What are they going to want in an author web site?
A little bit about the book, a little bit about the author, some cool pictures, something that no other kid knows about the book or character.... something secret....
A quiz or interactive game grabs attention and can generate word of mouth chat about your site.
Have you been to X.Y.Z.’s site? Take the ‘Am I Going To Die Rich’ quiz...

Feel free to leave a comment with your suggestions for great children’s author web site ideas ....

The dancing skeketon picture is over on the Bones book blog, where you will find a little bit about the book,some extra content, pictures of skeletons...a quiz...

Maureen

P.S.
In the states publishing contracts for children’s authors are beginning to state that providing extra content on websites is part of the book contract.
You wrote the book you sent it off and now it has a life of it’s own...Not any more. You follow it around with extra content updating progress and offering good times to everybody if they read your book... and the next book is the same and the next book....